We are now in the winter months and it’s that time of the year where it is vital to prepare your home for the cold. Making the correct changes before it’s too late is the perfect way to prepare for winter. There are many things that you can do to solidify your home for the winter, so we want to guide you through our top maintenance tips for winter!
Boiler Repairs
Having a well functioning boiler is one of the most vital components to your home in winter, if your boiler is not working correctly then you are going to struggle in the cold. Boiler repairs are an investment that may seem like something that you don’t want to spend money on, but they are worth it in the long run. The longer that you leave your boiler, the more it will end up costing you. Firstly, a boiler running inefficiently will cost you more in running costs, as it is not working at its optimal performance. Secondly, the longer you leave the repairs, the more likely they are to get worse, resulting in a more expensive cost when the time comes. There is also a chance that if you do not repair your boiler, the issues will worsen and you will need a full new boiler installation – which will have a large cost involved. Repair your boiler in good time and you will minimise the costs and keep your home heated all winter long!
Draught-Proof Your Home
There is nothing worse in the winter months than a cold draught in your home – putting a stop to this is a step in the right direction to perfecting your home for winter. You can begin this process by ensuring that all doors and windows are correctly sealed. Check that all seals are fully intact and if you find any discrepancies, set about fixing them – a quick Google should take you through the steps to fixing door and window seals. As well as making you uncomfortable, draughts in your home will also let heat escape from your house, which means you are wasting energy.
Gaps in floorboards can also cause a draught in your home. Gaps in floorboards can be amended by using wood glue, or putty, or something of a similar manner. Once again, you can look up online how to fix these problems, but if you are ever unsure, it’s always worth contacting a professional to help you with your issue.
Clear Your Gutters
This is a nice and simple tip that can be done quickly, but may often be overlooked! If your gutters are full with leaves and dirt, this can cause blockages. You can also have issues if you have cracked or damaged drain pipes. This is because during heavy rain in the winter months, if your external walls are getting soaked by leaking drain pipes, you can end up with damp on the inside.
With a lot of rain through winter, you certainly don’t want to have damp indoors, so get your gutters and drain pipes cleared and fixed.
Prepare Your Garden For Winter
Another way to protect your home from winter is actually to prepare your garden for the bad weather. This is another tip that may not be at the forefront of your mind, but can certainly come in handy.
You can action this by removing any loose branches from trees and trimming trees and hedges in order to ensure that they are not blown off by windy weather. Wind is always prominent in the winter months and you would not want anything blowing off from your garden and potentially doing damage to your property.
Another way you can prepare your garden for the winter months is to have products handy if there is ice. If you have any icy pathway or driveway you are putting yourself in danger of slipping. You can buy de-icing salt or grit from most supply shops, so ensuring that you have some ready for winter is a great way to protect yourself and your family from any accidents.
Secure Your Home
As most of these tips have been relevant to the weather, we would like to look at a different issue that we often face in winter. Due to the extended dark hours in winter, there is an increase of home robberies at this time of year. This is a sad, but true fact, that people will try and take advantage of being able to move in the dark. Therefore, we would highly recommend that the security of your house is up to date. This can include using bolts on your doors, gates etc., updating your locks to multi-point, which are more difficult to break into and ensuring that you have a working burglar alarm.
Your priority should always be to protect yourself, your family and your belongings, so it is essential that you have a secure home at all times – but especially in winter.
Another deterrent in the modern day can also be to use a doorbell camera, this will record anybody that passes by your front door and could disencourage a potential break in.
Now that we have covered a range of home maintenance tips for winter, you should be in a great position to action these changes and keep yourself safe and warm during the cold months!